Enantioselective epoxide hydlrolase and method for preparing and enantiopure epoxide using the same

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to enantioselective epoxide hydrolase proteins isolated from marine microorganisms, which has high enantioselectivity to various epoxide substrates, and a method of preparing the epoxides with high enantio-purity by using the epoxide hydrolases. The enantioselective hydrolase protein of the present invention can be applied for the preparation of enantiopure epoxides with high bioactivity at a high yield.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the U.S. national phase of PCT/KR2006/004003 filed Oct. 4, 2006, which claims priority of Korean Patent Applications 10-2005-0094580 filed Oct. 7, 2005 and 10-2006-0097390 filed Oct. 2, 2006.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an enantioselective epoxide hydrolase and a method of epoxide having enantiopure activity on various epoxide substrates by using the enantioselective epoxide hydrolase.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many bioactive materials such as medicines are in a form of various enantiomer, and only a specific enantiomer has the desired efficacy, and the remnant enantiomers causes serious undesirable effect. In aspects of safety and bioactivity, only single enantiomer must be produced, and thus many researches on the synthesis of enantio-pure bioactive material can be processed.

Enantiopure epoxides and vicinal diols are versatile synthetic intermediates for the preparation of enantiopure bioactive compounds such as pharmaceutical compounds, pesticides, and functional foods (Grogan, et al., FEMS Microbiol. Lett., 141:239-243, 1996; Arahira, et al., Eur. J. Biochem., 267:2649-2657, 2000), because the compounds has excellent reactivity and can induce the various reactions.

Particularly, the enantiopure epoxides can be prepared by using the chiral chemical catalysts and enzymes, and only single enantiomer is prepared by performing the selective hydrolysis with epoxide hydrolase to each enantiomer in racemic epoxide substrates. The method can be used commercially in the near future, because it can change inexpensive racemic substrate to enantiopure epoxide having higher added value. The epoxide hydrolase hydrolyzes only (R) or (S)-enantiomer among racemic epoxide substrate with enantio-selectivity to diol and leave the other type of enantiomer, so as to produce enantiopure epoxide. In addition, the enantioselectivity of epoxide hydrolase to (R) or (S)-enantiomer depends on microorganisms and substrate structure.

Epoxide hydrolases (EHase; EC 3.3.2.3) are ubiquitous enzymes that have been isolated from a wide variety of sources such bacteria, yeast, fungi, insect, plant and mammalian (Weijers, et al., J. Mol. Catal. B Enzym., 6:199-214, 1999; Archelas, & Furstoss, Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol., 5:112-119, 2001). Due to the potential application in the production of enantiopure epoxides by kinetic resolution of enantioselective EHase, several EHases have been developed (Tokunaga, et al., Science, 277:936-938, 1997).

However, the limited number of enantioselective EHases demands studies to explore new enantioselective EHases for the production of enantiopure epoxides in pharmaceutical industries.

Most EHases are members of the α/β hydrolase family which includes proteases, lipases, esterases, dehalogenases, and peroxidases (Nardini, & Dijkstra, Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol., 9:732-737, 1999; Rick, et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 121:7417-7418, 1999). α/β domains consist of a central, parallel or mixed β sheet surrounded by α helices. These enzymes characteristically employ a two-step mechanism in which a catalytic nucleophile of the enzyme attacks a polarized electrophile substrate of the covalent intermediate subsequently hydrolyzed (Yamada, et al., J. Biol. Chem., 275:23082-23088, 2000). The conserved catalytic triad of α/β hydrolase fold enzymes consists of a nucleophilic residue (Asp or Ser), an acidic residue (Asp or Glu) and a conserved histidine residue. The nucleophile fits the conserved amino-acid-sequence motif, Sm-X-Nu-Sm (Sm=small residue, X=any residue and Nu=nucleophile). Another conserved amino acid sequence is the HGXP motif containing the oxyanion hole of the enzyme (Ollis, et al., Protein Eng., 5:197-211, 1992).

However, the conservation in the primary sequence among EHases is limited only in 2 or 3 amino acids of the critical regions, leading to make the screening by homology search difficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present inventor found the epoxide hydrolase having high enantioselective hydrolyzing activity by screening Erythrobacter sp., Sphingopyxis sp., Novosphingobium sp. and Rhodobacterium sp. from various marine environments, analyzing the ORF sequence in their genome to determine a candidate gene, and expressing the candidate gene.

The object of the present invention is to provide enantioselective epoxide hydrolase proteins which produce high enantiopure epoxide and are isolated from marine environments.

The further object of the present invention is to provide a method of preparing enantiopure epoxide by using the epoxide hydrolase proteins having high enantio-selectivity to various epoxide substrates.

Another object of the present invention is to provide Erythrobacter sp., Sphingophyxis sp., Novosphingobium sp., and Rhodobacterium sp. with enantioselective hydrolase activity from the various marine environments and a method of screening them.

To achieve the object, the present invention provide an enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein which is isolated from Erythrobacter litoralis, and has the following characteristics: 1) a molecular weight of 30 to 45 kDa as measured by SDS-PAGE method; 2) an optimum pH 6.5 to 8.0; and 3) an optimum temperature of 40 to 60° C. Preferably, the protein comprises an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 13, an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 15, or an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 17. More preferably, the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 13 is coded by a nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 14, the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 15 is coded by a nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 16, and the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 17 is coded by a nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 18.

In addition, the present invention an enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein which is isolated from Sphingophyxis alaskensis, and has the following characteristics: 1) a molecular weight of 45 to 50 kDa as measured by SDS-PAGE method; 2) an optimum pH 7.0 to 8.0; and 3) an optimum temperature of 30 to 40° C. Preferably, the protein has an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 28, and more preferably, is coded by a nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 29.

In another aspect, the present invention an enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein which is isolated from Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, and has the following characteristics: 1) a molecular weight of 40 to 45 kDa measured by SDS-PAGE method; 2) an optimum pH 7.0 to 8.0; and 3) an optimum temperature of 30 to 40° C. Preferably, the protein has an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 30, and more preferably, is coded by a nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 31.

In further aspect, the present invention provides an enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein which is isolated from Rhodobacterium sp. HTCC2654, and has the following characteristics: 1) a molecular weight of 35 to 40 kDa measured by SDS-PAGE method; 2) an optimum pH 7.0 to 8.0; and 3) an optimum temperature of 30 to 40° C. Preferably, the protein has an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 32, and more preferably is coded by a nucleotide sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 33.

In still further aspect, the present invention provides a method of preparing enantiopure epoxide by using enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

A more complete appreciation of the invention, and many of the attendant advantages thereof, will be readily apparent as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

FIG. 1A shows the type of various epoxide substrates, wherein A, B, C and D indicate styrene oxide(SO), glycidyl phenyl ether(GPE), 1,2-epoxyhexane(EX) and 1,2-epoxybutane(EB), respectively.

FIG. 1B shows the hydrolyzing activity of Erythrobacter spp. JCS358 toward the racemic SO substrate with gas chromatography(GC), wherein A and B indicate (S)-styrene oxide and (R)-styrene oxide, respectively.

FIG. 2 shows the kinetic resolution of Erythrobacter spp. JCS358 toward the racemic SO substrate, wherein ∘, • and □ indicate (R)-styrene oxide area, (S)-styrene oxide area and enantiomeric excess(%), respectively.

FIG. 3A to 3C show alignment between amino acid sequence of purified EEH1 protein to that of known protein where EEH1 is represented by SEQ ID NO: 13, EPH1 (Rhodotorula glutinis) is represented by SEQ ID NO: 34, hyl1 (Aspergillus niger) is represented by SEQ ID NO: 35, Epb1 (Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous) is represented by SEQ ID NO: 36, EPHX1 (Homo sapiens) is represented by SEQ ID NO: 37, and Ephx1 (Rattus norvegicus) is represented by SEQ ID NO: 38;

FIG. 4A and 4B show alignment between amino acid sequence purified from EEH1 and EEH2 to that of known protein, where EHPX2 (Homo sapiens) is represented by SEQ ID NO: 39, Ephx2 (Rattus norvegicus) is represented by SEQ ID NO: 40, pEHSt (Solanum tuberosum) is represented by SEQ ID NO: 41, sEHGm (Glycine max) is represented by SEQ ID NO: 42, ephA (Bradyrhizobium japonicum) is represented by SEQ ID NO: 43, EEH3 is represented by SEQ ID NO: 17, and EEH2 is represented by SEQ ID NO: 15;

FIG. 5 shows a phylogenetic analysis of epoxide hydrolase(EHase).

FIG. 6 shows the purity of three EHases isolated from Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594 with SDS-PAGE, wherein FIG. A indicates purified EEH1, B indicates purified EEH2 and EEH3, respectively.

FIGS. 7A and 7B show the effects of pH and temperature on the activity of the purified rEEH1, rEEH2 and rEEH3, wherein ◯, ● and ▾ indicate EEH1, EEH2 and EEH3, respectively.

FIG. 8 shows the hydrolyzing activities of enantioselective EHases (EEH1, EEH2 and EEH3) toward the racemic SO substrate with gas chromatography.

FIG. 9 shows the purity of EHase isolated from Novosphingobium aromativorans with SDS-PAGE.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION AND THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be explained in more detail.

The present invention provides purified enantioselective epoxide hydrolase proteins from Erythrobacter litoralis, Sphingophyxis alaskensis, Novosphingobium aromaticivorans and Rhodobacterium.

Erythrobacter sp., Sphingopyxis sp., Novosphingobium sp. and Rhodobacterium sp. are selected by screening, and then ORF sequence in their genome are aligned to select a candidate gene. The enantioselective hydrolase proteins having high enantioselectivity to the various substrates are separated and purified from the expressed products from the candidate genes. More specifically, the enantioselective hydrolase having high enantio-selectivity are separated by using the following screening method from the microorganisms including Erythrobacter sp., Sphingophyxis sp., Novosphingobium sp., and Rhodobacterium sp. which are obtained from various marine environments. The screening method includes the steps of:

1) preparing a sample of interest from various marine environments;

2) selecting a positive strain by culturing the sample in enriched medium;

3) determining a candidate gene by analyzing the ORF nucleotide sequence in genome of the strain, and aligning the obtained nucleotide sequence with the nucleotide sequence of known epoxide hydrolase; and

4) detecting the epoxide hydrolase having high enantioselective hydrolyzing activity from the candidate gene by introducing the candidate gene to expression vector and culturing the vector.

The sample of interest in step 1 of the screening method is not limited particularly, but can be marine sediment, sponge and algae which are collected from various marine environments such as Hoogin in Gangwon-Do, Ulleungdo (Island), Dokdo (Island), Taejongdae in Busan, and Sihwa in Gyeonggi-do in Republic of Korea, and Kagoshima in Japan. The strains can be isolated from the collected marine sediment directly, or after culturing the marine sediment in enriched medium.

The enriched medium step 2 in the screening method, the enriched medium is not limited particularly, preferably 1 wt % of styrene oxide (SO) or alkan mixture (nC8, C10, nC12, nC13, nC14, nC15, nC16, C17, nC18, and cyclohexan(Sigma, Mo., USA) are mixed in 1 L of mineral salt medium (MM 2) of sea water.

In the screening method, the bacteria in step 3) is selected from Erythrobacter litoralis, Erythrobacter sp. 2216.25.25, Erythrobacter aquimaris SW-110, Erythrobacter gaetabuli, Alterierythrobacter epoxidivorans, Erythrobacter luteolus SW-109, Erythrobater sp. MBIC3031 and Erythrobacter longus. The microorganism can be Erythrobacter sp. selected from the group consisting of Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594, Erythrobacter sp. AKS329, Erythrobacter sp. aquimaris JCS325, Erythrobacter gaetbuli JCS340 JCS325, Erythrobacter sp. JCS340, Erythrobacter sp. JCS350, Erythrobacter sp. JCS358, Alterierythrobacter sp. JCS350, Erythrobacter aquimaris sp. JCS360, Erythrobacter aquimaris sp. JCS364, Erythrobacter luteolus sp. JCS368, Erythrobacter sp. HJ239, Erythrobacter longus sp. DokDo 15, Erythrobacter litoralis DMS8509 and Erythrobacter geatbuli KCTC12227 (Table 2), but not limited thereto.

The open reading frame analysis can be carried out by ProteinFinder produced by Ensoltek (Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea) and BLAST program, but not limited thereto. In addition, analyzing method of amino acid sequence of conventional epoxide hydrolase, and the new epoxide hydrolases of the present invention can be preformed by using CLUSTAL W program(Thompson, et al., Nucleic. Acids. 22:4673-4680, 1994), but not limited thereto.

The candidate genes in step 3) include EEH1 gene represented by SEQ ID NO: 13, EEH2 gene represented by SEQ ID NO: 16 and EEH3 gene represented by SEQ ID NO: 18 from Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594, sEEH gene represented by SEQ ID NO: 29 from Sphingophyxis alaskensis, nEEH gene represented by SEQ ID NO: 31 from Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, and rEEH gene represented by SEQ ID NO: 33 from Rhodobacterium, but not limited thereto. In addition the candidate gene can be entire open reading frame or its fragment derived from the genes.

In step 4 of the screening method, the expression vector can be any expression vector used in the prior art, for example pET-24a(+).

In step 4, analysis of the hydrolyzing activity to the various epoxide substrates was performed by a spectrophotometric assay based on the epoxide extracted from the reaction mixture and spectrophotometric quantification of the non-extracted diol or gas chromatography.

After four (4) candidate strains are screened from marine environment, epoxide hydrolase proteins having high enantioselective hydrolyzing activity to various epoxide substrates are separated and purified from the candidate strains. The epoxide hydrolase are separated and purified by general separation and purification method used generally in this field. For example, after performing seed culture in LB medium enriched with Kanamycin (50 ug/ml), 1% of the cultured strain is added to the main medium, cultured for 3 hours, and added with IPTG to 1 mM of the final concentration. To purify the expressed gene product, His-Tag is added to the candidate gene, and then is cleaved by Talon resin (Clontech, Co.).

In addition, by analyzing ORF sequence in genome DNA to in order to analyze the gene encoding the purified epoxide hydrolase protein, 1.122 bp gene (EEH1, SEQ ID NO: 14), 870 bp gene (EEH2, SEQ ID NO: 16) and 888 bp gene (EEH3, SEQ ID NO: 18) are isolated from Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594.

sEEH gene (SEQ ID NO: 29) of Sphingophyxis alaskensis, nEEH gene (SEQ ID NO: 31) of Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, and rEEH gene (SEQ ID NO: 33) of Rhodobacterium sp. HTCC2654 are separated respectively. In addition, each gene is introduced into expression vector, pET-24a (+), transformed to BL21-CodonPlus (DE3)-RP (Novagen), and then performed by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis. As a result, the hydrolases are 41 kDa-sized protein (rEEH1, SEQ ID NO: 13) isolated from Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594, 33.4 kDa-sized protein (rEEH2, SEQ ID NO: 15) and 34.5 kDa-sized protein (rEEH3, SEQ ID NO: 17), 49 kDa-sized protein (sEEH, SEQ ID NO: 28) isolated from Sphingophyxis alaskensis, 43 kDa-sized protein (nEEH, SEQ ID NO: 30) isolated from Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, and 36 kDa43 kDa-sized isolated from Sphingophyxis alaskensis (rEEH, SEQ ID NO: 32) isolated from Rhodobacterium sp. HTCC2654 (FIG. 9).

The present invention provides an enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein which is isolated from Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594, and has the following characteristics:

1) a molecular weight of 30 to 45 kDa measured by SDS-PAGE method;

2) an optimum pH of 6.5 to 8.0; and

3) an optimum temperature of 40 to 60° C.

Preferably, the rEEH1, rEEH2 and rEEH3 hydrolase isolated from Erythrobacter litoralis has a molecular weight of 41 kDa (polypeptide as shown in SEQ ID NO: 13), 33.4 kDa (polypeptide as shown in SEQ ID NO: 15) and 34.5 kDa (polypeptide as shown in SEQ ID NO: 17) (FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B), optimum pH of 6.5(rEEH1), 7.5(rEEH2) and 8.0(rEEH3)(FIG. 7A), and optimum temperature of 50° C. (rEEH1), 55° C. (rEEH2) and 45° C. (rEEH3)(FIG. 7B), respectively.

The present invention provides an enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein which is isolated from Sphingophyxis alaskensis, and has the following characteristics:

1) a molecular weight of 45 to 50 kDa measured by SDS-PAGE method;

2) an optimum pH of 7.0 to 8.0; and

3) an optimum temperature of 30 to 40° C.

Preferably, the rEEH hydrolase has a molecular weight of 49 kDa (polypeptide as shown in SEQ ID NO: 28) (see FIG. 9), optimum pH of about 7 and optimum temperature of 30-40° C.

The present invention provides an enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein which is isolated from Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, and has the following characteristics:

1) a molecular weight of 40 to 45 kDa measured by SDS-PAGE method;

2) an optimum pH of 7.0 to 8.0; and

3) an optimum temperature of 30 to 40° C.

Preferably, the rEEH hydrolase has a molecular weight of 43 kDa (polypeptide as shown in SEQ ID NO: 30)(see FIG. 9), optimum pH of 7.0-8.0 and optimum temperature of 30-40° C.

The present invention provides an enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein which is isolated from Rhodobacterium sp. HTCC2654, and has the following characteristics:

1) a molecular weight of 35 to 40 kDa measured by SDS-PAGE method;

2) an optimum pH 7.0 to 8.0; and

3) an optimum temperature of 30 to 40° C.

Preferably, the rEEH hydrolase has a molecular weight of 36 kDa (polypeptide as shown in SEQ ID NO: 32) (see FIG. 9), an optimum pH 7.0 to 8.0; and an optimum temperature of 30 to 40° C.

In another aspect of the present invention, a method of preparing epoxides with high enantiopure by using the enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein having a high enantioselectivity on various epoxide substrates.

In an embodiment, 2-100 mM racemic styrene oxide can be reacted with purified enzymes such as EEH1, EEH2, EEH3, sEEH, nEEH, and rEEH, recombinant E. coli or wild type strain in each optimum condition (as confirmed by Gas Chromatography), and then the produced epoxide are used.

In the present invention, the substrates of enantioselective epoxide hydrolase can not be limited particularly, and the examples are styrene oxide (SO), glycidyl phenyl ether (GPE), epichlorohydrin (ECH), epifluorohydrin (EF), 1,2-epoxybutane (EB) and 1,2-epoxyhexane (EX).

The hydrolase has an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 13, an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 15, or an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 17. The preparation method can be performed at pH 6.5 to 8.0 and temperature of 40 to 60° C.

The hydrolase has an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 28, an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 30, or an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 32. The preparation method can be performed at pH 7.0 to 8.0 and temperature of 30 to 40° C.

Practical and presently preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrative as shown in the following Examples. However, it will be appreciated that those skilled in the art, on consideration of this disclosure, may make modifications and improvements within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

EXAMPLE 1 Screening Enantioselective Epoxide Hydrolase(EHase)-Producing Microorganisms

<1-1> Materials and Reagents

The epoxides used in the present invention are indicated in FIG. 1. Wherein, racemic styrene oxide was purchased from Fluka Co., and pure (R)-styrene oxide, pure (S)-styrene oxide, and all other racemic epoxides were purchased from Aldrich Co, respectively. The chiraldex gamma-cyclodextrin trifluoroacetyl(G-TA) capillary GC column was purchased from Astec Co. (Whippany, N.J.), and other medium components were purchased Merck and Difco Co.

<1-2> Sample Preparation

Marine sediment, sponge and algae samples were collected from Hujin (depth, ˜20 m; 37° 51′ N, 129° 45′ E), Ulleungdo (depth, ˜758.7 m; 38° 00′ N, 131° 27′ E), Dokdo (depth, ˜620 m; 37° 14′ N, 131° 45′ E), Taejongda (depth, ˜20 m; 35° 14′ N, 129° 45′ E), Sihwa (Yellow sea, Korea), and Kagoshima bay (depth, 100˜200 m; 31° 90′ N, 130° 48′ E). Wherein, the sediment samples were collected using various method such as grab, core sampler, and scuba diving. Immediately after sampling, 0.3 g of chilled sediment was ground in a mortar, and incubated in the nutrition abundant culture media. Samples were collected under formal agreement with all legal parties.

<1-3> Strain Isolation

To make the nutrition abundant culture media, 1% of SO substrate, epichlorohydrin, or alkane mixture (nC₈, nC₁₀, nC₁₂, nC₁₃, nC₁₄, nC₁₅, nC₁₆, nC₁₇, nC₁₈, and cyclohexane, Sigma Chemical Co., St Louis, Mo., USA) was mixed with 1 liter of seawater of mineral salt medium (MM2)(Ferrara-Guerrero et al., Handbook of methods in microbial ecology. Lewis Publishers, Florida and p 9-19, 1993). 7 days after incubation at 25° C., clones were isolated. The isolates were purified through successive inoculation and incubation on ZoBell agar at 25° C. The isolated strains were used in the following screening step.

<1-4> Strain Culture

Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594 was cultured in ZoBell 2216E broth (Oppenheimer & Zobell, 1952) medium consisting of 0.5% peptone, 0.1% yeast extract, and 75% seawater (pH 7.5) at 30° C. for 1 day. Sphingopyxis alaskensis and Novosphingobium aromaticivorans were cultured in nutrient medium consisting of 0.5% peptone and 0.3% yeast extract at 30° C. Rhodobacterium sp. HTCC2654 was cultured in marine broth 2216(Difco) medium at 25° C. The bacterial cells were suspended in ZoBell 2216E broth medium containing 20% glycerol, and stored at −80° C. until used. E. coli DH5α and E. coli BL21-CodonPlus (DE3)-RIL cells (Stratagene, LaJolla, Calif.) were used for plasmid propagation and gene expression, respectively. The cells were cultured in Luria-Bertani(LB) broth medium containing appropriate antibiotics at 37° C.

<1-5> Identification of an EHase-Producing Strain

With the method as described above, an embodiment of the present invention isolated total 181 strains from marine environments. Among 181 strains, 31 stains were shown to hydrolyze SO substrate by spectrophotometric measurement (Table 1). After analyzing the hydrolyzing activity of enantioselective EHase of the strains with gas chromatography(GC), final 1 strain, JCS358 was shown to preferentially hydrolyze (R)-epoxide of SO (Table 1 and FIG. 1B).

TABLE 1 Screening of an enantioselective EHase-producing marine microorganism and the sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene from the microorganism The phylogenetic Screening grouping of the strains Diol GC Sampling site Strains (number/%) assay analysis Hujin 64 (-pro^(a): 4 (6.25%) 18 0 (-pro^(b): 47 (73.4%) G.P.^(c): 4 (6.25%) CFB^(d): 9 (14.1%) Uleungdo 9 (-pro: 3 (33.3%) 3 0 G.P.: 6 (66.7%) Dokdo 9 (-pro: 3 (33.3%) 2 0 (-pro: 2 (22.2%) G.P.: 3 (33.3%) CFB: 1 (11.1%) Taejongdae 18 (-pro: 8 (44.4%) 8 0 (-pro: 6 (33.3%) G.P.: 2 (11.1%) CFB: 2 (11.1%) Sihwa 15 (-pro: 3 (20%) 0 0 (-pro: 8 (53.3%) G.P.: 2 (13.3%) CFB: 2 (13.3%) Kagoshima, Japan 66 (-pro: 26 (39.4%) — 1 (-pro: 13 (19.7%) G.P.: 21 (31.8%) CFB: 6 (9.1%) Total 181 (-pro: 44 (24.4%) 31 1 (-pro: 79 (43.6%) G.P.: 38 (21.0%) CFB: 20 (11.0%) ^(a)α-pro: α-proteobacteria; ^(b)γ-pro: γ-proteobacteria; ^(c)G.P: Gram-positive; ^(d)CFB: Cytophaga-Flavobacteria-Bacteroides

<1-6> Sequence Analysis of 16S rRNA from JCS358 Strain

An embodiment of the present invention was performed by the sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene on the genomic DNA sequence of the strain. The 16S rRNA gene was amplified from genomic DNA by PCR (Weisburg, et al., J. Bacterioaol., 173: 697-703, 1991) using the SEQ ID NO: 2(5′-AGAGTTTGATCATGGCTCAG-3′, 27F) and SEQ ID NO: 3(5′-AAGGAGGTGATCCAGCCGCA-3′, 1518R). DNA sequencing was performed with the automated sequencer (ABI 3100) using a BigDye terminator kit (PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif.).

The results indicated that the JCS358 strain belonged to Erythrobacter spp. with 98% similarity to Erythrobacter gaetbuli(Table 2). Because the Erythrobacter spp. was known to an aerobic heterotrophic α-proteobacteria, generally found in a variety of marine environments such as sea water, sediment and tidal flat, to examine whether the activity of enantioselective hydrolysis of the strain toward epoxide substrate is commonly found in Erythrobacter spp., an embodiment of the present invention was examinated the hydrolyzing activity for 9 additional Erythrobacter strains isolated from various marine environments, wherein the strains were stocked in KORDI collection or acquired from culture collections (Anzai, et al., Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol., 50: 1563-1589, 2000; Denner, et al., Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol., 52: 1655-1661, 2002; Shiba & Simidu, Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol., 32: 211-217, 1982; Yoon, et al., Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol., 53: 1169-1174, 2003 and Yurkov, et al., Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol., 44: 427-434, 1994).

As shown in Table 2, 7 strains out of 10 strains (AKS 329, JCS 325, JCS 340, JCS 350, JCS 358, JCS 360 and JCS 364) displayed ee value of high enantioselective hydrolyzing activity toward SO substrate. In the 7 Erythrobacter strains, the kinetic preference of the EHase of the strains was mostly toward (R)-SO. These results indicate that Erythrobacter spp. could metabolize epoxide substrates and be valuable to fine novel enzymes related with epoxide.

TABLE 2 The activities of enantioselective EHase of Erythrobacter spp. toward various epoxide substrates Strain Best-matched ee^(a) (%)/abs. conf.^(b) name neighbor Similarity (%) SO GPE EX EB AKS 329 Erythrobacter sp. 99 96.4/S   99/R 47.5/S 19.6/R 2216.25.25 JCS 325 Erythrobacter 99   99/S 8.15/RA D^(c) 64.8/S 37.2/R aquimaris SW-110 JCS 340 Erythrobacter 99 80.9/S 62.2/RA D 81.3/S 23.8/R gaetbuli JCS 350 Alterierythrobacter 97 80.6/S   99/R AD   99/S 11.5/R epoxidivorans JCS 358 Erythrobacter 98   99/S 81.7/R 72.5/S  5.5/R gaetbuli JCS 360 Erythrobacter 99   99/S   99/R AD 28.0/S AD 20.6/R aquimaris SW-110 JCS 364 Erythrobacter 99   99/S   99/R AD 37.4/S AD 34.6/R aquimaris SW-110 JCS 368 Erythrobacter 99  2.8/S X^(d)  5.5/S 26.0/S 14.2/R luteolus SW-109 HJ 239 Erythrobacter sp. 99 0.09/S X X  2.7/S X ND^(e) MBIC 3031 DokDo 15 Erythrobacter longus 99  5.0/S X 12.4/R 13.3/S 7.98/R ^(a)ee (%): enantiomeric excess, ^(b)abs. Conf.: absolute configuration, meaning remaining epoxide after incubation, ^(c)AD: hydrolyzed (S)- and (R)-enantiomers, ^(d)X: not detected an EHase activity, ^(e)ND: not determined.

<1-7> Analysis of the Hydrolyzing Activity of Erythrobacter Spp. Toward Various Epoxide Substrates

EHase activity of the strains was measured by a spectrophotometric assay based on the epoxide extracted from the reaction mixture and spectrophotometric quantification of the non-extracted diol (Bhatnagar, et al., J. Biochem. Biophys. Methods., 50:1-13, 2001). The isolated strains were shake-cultured in a flask containing 30 ml of ZoBell medium at 25° C. 24 h after incubation, the supernatant was removed by centrifugation at 4,300×g for 20 min at 4° C. The whole cells were washed twice with 10 mM of sodium phosphate buffer (pH 6.8), and 4 mM of SO containing dimethyl formamide(DMF) was mixed with 0.04 g of whole cells which were resuspended in 10 mM of sodium phosphate buffer (pH 6.8), and the mixture was incubated at 30° C. for 15 min. Then, 40 ul of the NaIO₄ stocked solution (stocked with 200 mM of NaIO₄ in DMF) was added, and immediately vortexed for 2 min. After centrifugation at 16,500×g for 90 sec, the supernatant was quantified by spectrophotometric measurement at 290 nm.

Also, the measurement of enantioselective EHase activity was executed by a gas chromatography (GC) analysis as follows. 0.2 g of whole cells having EHase activity measured by spectrophotometer were mixed with 2 mM of SO in a 10 ml vial containing 1 ml of Tris-HCl (100 mM, pH 8.0), and incubated for 15 h at 30° C. After extracting the reaction mixtures with 2 ml of hexane, and then the extracts were analyzed on a chiraldex gamma-cyclodextrin trifluoroacetyl column (0.25 mm ID, 30 m length; Astec, Adv., Tech., USA; van Loo et al., 2004) using a GC system equipped with FID detector (Hewlett-Packard, Avondale, Pa., USA).

The temperatures of oven, injector and detector in GC analysis for racemic SO were 90° C., 220° C. and 230° C., respectively. The hydrolysis toward other epoxide substrates depicted in FIG. 1A was also analyzed with the method as described above.

The results of the hydrolyzing activity of the 10 strains toward various epoxide substrates depicted FIG. 1A were shown to Table 2, indicating that the 7 Erythrobacter strains could hydrolyze preferentially (S)-GPE with variation at ee value, which is opposite to the enantioselective hydrolytic activities toward SO. In contrast to SO and GPE, both (R)- and (S)-epoxide of 1,2-epoxyhexane(EX) and 1,2-epoxybutane(EB) were hydrolyzed by most of strains (Table 2).

<1-8> Kinetic resolution of racemic SO by Erythrobacter sp. JCS 358

Kinetic resolution of 2 mM of racemic SO was examined in a batch mode at 30° C. using a Erythrobacter spp. JCS 358 strain. Initial concentration of racemic SO was 2 mM, and 0.2 g of whole cells were used. 24 h after incubation, the reaction mixtures were removed periodically, and the residual epoxides were analyzed by GC after extraction with hexane.

As shown in FIG. 2, the kinetic resolution of racemic SO by JCS 358 stain was observed. Wherein, the hydrolyzing rate toward (R)-SO substrate was to be faster than that of (S)-SO substrate, and the enantiopurity of (S)-SO was increased from 0 to 99% after 16 h. However, the fact that it was taken 16 h for kinetic resolution of 2 mM of SO indicates that the endogeneous level of EHase produced by Erythrobacter spp. JCS 358 strain was not be enough to efficient kinetic resolution of racemic SO.

EXAMPLE 2 Identification and Phylogenetic Analysis of the EHase Gene from Erythrobacter Litoralis HTCC2594 Strain

<2-1> Analysis of ORF Sequence from Erythrobacter Litoralis HTCC2594 strain

To identify EHase gene from Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594 strain, sequences (Sm-X-Nu-X-Sm-Sm motif and H-G-P) toward ORF sequence of above strain whose genome sequence was known by Moore foundation (Palo Alto, CA.) were analyzed with the ProteinFinder program of Ensoltek (Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea) and the BLAST program. Also, the pair wise comparison of amino acid sequence of candidate EHase and known EHase were analyzed with the CLUSTAL W program (Thompson, et al., Nucleic. Acids. 22: 4673-4680, 1994). It was analyzed with general method whether the active-site residues of putative EHase was presented in the candidate strains. For this purpose, sequences that contained ring-opening tyrosine, HGXP motif and Sm-X-Nu-Sm-Sm(Sm=small residue, X=any residue, and Nu=nucleophile) motif were selected, and aligned with the known EHase sequences.

The results indicated that FIG. 3A to 3C were aligned amino acid sequence of purified EEH1 protein with that of known protein, wherein the protein accession numbers were followed as:

EPH1 (Rhodotorula glutinis), AAF64646;

Ephx1 (Rattus norvegivcu), P07687;

EPHX1 (Homo sapiens), AAH08291;

Eph1 (Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous), AAF18956;

hyl1 (Aspergillus niger), CAB59813 and

EEH1 (Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594).

The results indicated that FIGS. 4A and 4B were aligned amino acid sequence of purified EEH2 and EEH3 protein with that of known protein, wherein the protein accession numbers were followed as:

Homo sapiens (EPHX2, Human sEH), AAH11628;

Rattus norvegicus (Ephx2, Rat sEH), CAA46211;

Solanum tuberosum (pEHSt and potato sEH), AAA81890;

Glycine max (sEHGm and soybean sEH), CAA55293;

Bradyrhizobium japonicum (ephA), BAC46379;

Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594 (EEH2) and

Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594 (EEH3).

The results of analyzing the ORF sequence of Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594, three genes consisting of 1.122 by (eeh1, SEQ ID NO: 14), 870 by (eeh2, SEQ ID NO: 16) and 888 by (eeh3, SEQ ID NO: 18) were selected. Also, it was confirmed that most of EHases contained shared Sm-X-Nu-X-Sm-Sm motif, catalytic triad and oxyanion hole (FIG. 3 and FIG. 4). Firstly, eeh1 gene showed 35% of similarity to human microsomal EHase, and contained GGD¹⁷³WGS motif, catalyst triad (Asp¹⁷³, Glu³²⁴ and His³⁵¹) and oxyanion hole HGXP (HGW⁹⁹P)(FIG. 3A to 3C). In contrast, eeh2 and eeh3 genes showed similarity to soluble EHase containing Sm-X-Nu-X-Sm-Sm motif (VHD¹⁰⁷YGV for eeh2 and AHD¹⁰⁶WGA for eeh3), catalytic triad (Asp¹⁰⁷, Glu²⁵⁰ and His²⁶⁹ for eeh2; Asp¹⁰⁶, Glu²⁵¹ and His²⁷⁰ for eeh3) and oxyanion hole HGXP (HGY⁴²P for eeh2 and HGF³⁸P for eeh3) conserved in EHase (Arahira et al., 2000; Kaneko et al., 2002; Knehr et al., 1993; Stapleton et al., 1994 and Strausberg et al., 2002; FIGS. 4A and 4B).

<2-2> Phylogenetic Analysis

For phylogenetic analysis of EHase, the known EHase sequences received from SwissProt or EMBL protein database were compared with sequences of eeh1, eeh2 and eeh3 gene. Phylogenetic distances were calculated with the CLUSTAL W program and phylogenetic trees were drawn with the Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis 3.1 software (The Biodesign Institute, Tempe, Ariz.; Kumar et al., 2004). The results indicated that FIG. 5 was drawn by phylogenetic analysis of EHase, wherein the protein accession numbers were followed as:

Rhodotorula glutinis (AAF64649);

Rattus norvegicus (P07687);

Homo sapiens (AAH08291);

Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous (AAF18956);

Aspergillus niger (CAB59813);

Homo sapiens (AAH11628);

Rattus norvegicus (CCA46211);

Solanum tuberosum (AAA81890);

Glycine max (CAA55293);

Agrobactrium radiobacter sEEH (O31243);

Corynebacterium spp. sEEH (O52866) and

Haloalkane dehalogenase (P22643).

As shown in FIG. 5, a phylogenetic analysis of the three ORFs with ORFs of known EHase from Rhodotorula glutinis (EPH1; Visser et al., 2000), Rattus norvegicus (Ephx1, Rat mEH; Falany et al., 1987), Homo sapiens (EPHX1, Human mEH; Strausberg et al., 2002), Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous (Eph1; Visser et al., 1999), Aspergillus niger (hyl1; Arand et al., 1999), Homo sapiens (EPHX2, Human sEH; Strausberg et al., 2002), Rattus norvegicus (Ephx2, Rat sEH; Knehr et al., 1993), Solanum tuberosum (pEHSt and potato; sEH; Stapleton et al., 1994), Glycine max (sEHGm and soybean sEH; Arahira et al., 2000), Agrobactrium radiobacter sEEH (Rink et al., 1997), Corynebacterium spp. sEEH (Misawa et al., 1998), and Haloalkane dehalogenase (Janssen et al., 1989) was conducted using modified neighbor-joining method. The results indicated that eeh1 was related to group with microsomal EHase, while eeh2 and eeh3 were related to soluble EHase (FIG. 5). Taken together, the ORFs of the present invention from Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594 were EHase having the hydrolyzing activity toward epoxide substrates.

<2-3> Cloning of eeh Genes

To cloning of EHase encoding genes from Erythrobacter litoralis HTCC2594 strain, the genomic DNA of above strain was isolated using the Genomic DNA extraction kit (Promega, USA), and was amplified with Forward(F) and Reverse(R) primer set flanked by restriction enzyme Nde I and Xho I/Not I site as indicated in Table 3, respectively.

TABLE 3 Primer set for cloning of eeh genes SEQ ID PRIMER SEQUENCE NO: eeh1F (F) 5′-CGACCCGG CATATG AGCGAGATCAGGCCCTTCG 4 TTCT-3′ eeh1R (R) 5′-CTCCACAT CTCGAG TCGCATGAGTGAAAAACAG 5 GCGCG-3′ eeh2F (F) 5′-CGACCCGG CATATG GCCGGACCAAGCCTGGGCG 6 AATGG-3′ eeh2R (R) 5′-CTCCACAT CTCGAG GCGTGCGAGCCAATCCAGC 7 GTCACGC-3′ eeh3F (F) 5′-CGACCCGG CATATG CCCGATCCTGCGAGCGGGA 8 TT-3′ eeh3R (R) 5′-CTCCACAT GCGGCC GCGGATGCCGGAGCGGGCT 9 TAGG-3′ eeh1RX (R) 5′-CTCCACAT CTCGAG CTATCGCATGAGTGAAAAA 10 CAGGC-3′ eeh2RX (R) 5′-CTCCACAT CTCGAG TTAGCGTGCGAGCCAATCC 11 AGCGTCACGC-3′ eeh3RX (R) 5′-CTCCACAT GCGGCC GCTCAGGATGCCGGAGCGG 12 GCTTAG-3′

As shown in Table 3, the underlined sequences in the forward and reverse primer indicate Nhe I and Xho I/Not I site, respectively. For confirm the expression of eeh1, eeh2 and eeh3 genes without His-tag, the reverse primers of eeh1RX, eeh2RX and eeh3RX were also designed as above Table 3. After PCR, the amplified DNA fragment was restricted with restriction enzyme Nhe I and Xho I/Not I, and the fragment was ligated with Nhe I and Xho I/Not I-restricted plasmid pET-24a (+) vector, and then the vector was transformed into E. coli DH5α. The recombinant vector was introduced into BL21-CondonPlus(DE3)-RP(Novagen) for expression.

<2-4> Expression of eeh Genes

To confirm whether the eeh gene expression vector which was manufactured with the method as described above embodiment <2-3> was expressed in the cells, the transformant was cultured at 37° C., and was induced by the addition of 1 mM IPTG when the optical density(O.D) reached 0.4 to 0.6 at 600 nm. 3 h after induction, the cells were harvested by centrifugation at 5,000×g for 20 min, resuspended in a buffer [50 mM phosphate (pH 7.0), 0.5 M KCl and 10% glycerol], and then disrupted by sonication. Cell debris was removed by centrifugation at 15,000×g for 30 min using a His-Bind Purification Kit (Novagen Co.). The soluble fraction was loaded in a Ni-nitrilotriacetic(Ni-NTA) column equilibrated with binding buffer [500 mM NaCl, 20 mM phosphate (pH 7.0), and 5 mM imidazole]. After washing with washing buffer [500 mM NaCl, 20 mM phosphate (pH 7.0), and 60 mM imidazole], the bound enzyme was eluted with elution buffer [500 mM NaCl, 20 mM phosphate (pH 7.0), and 1 M imidazole], and then dialyzed with 50 mM of phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). The purity of the protein was confirmed by SDS-PAGE under denaturing conditions as described by Laemmli (1970). The protein concentration was measured by the Bradford method using the Bio-Rad protein assay kit containing a standard protein BSA (Bradford, 1976).

The results indicated that the molecular weight of the purified rEEH1, rEEH2, and rEEH3 showed 41 kDa (rEEH1, SEQ ID NO: 13), 33.4 kDa (rEEH2, SEQ ID NO: 15), and 34.5 kDa (rEEH3, SEQ ID NO: 17), respectively (FIGS. 6A and 6B).

<2-5> The Effects of pH and Temperature on the EHase Activity

The effect of pH on the EHase activity was measured with 50 mM sodium acetate-acetic acid buffer (pH 4.0 and 6.0), 50 mM MES buffer (pH 6.0 to 7.0), 50 mM Phosphate buffer (pH 7.0 to 9.0), and 50 mM Glycine buffer (pH 9.0 and 10.0), and the optimum reaction temperature on the EHase activity was measured over a temperature of range from 10 to 70° C. at pH 7.5.

The effect of pH on the activity of the EHases (rEEH1, rEEH2 and rEEH3) was measured with varying pH of range from 4.0 to 10.0, and the results indicated that the optimum activity of the rEEH1, rEEH2 and rEEH3 toward styrene oxide occurred at pH 6.5, 7.5, and 8.0, respectively (FIG. 7A). Namely, the EHases were stable largely at neutral pH, but unstable under pH 6.0 (FIG. 7A).

Also, the effect of temperature on the activity of the EHases (rEEH1, rEEH2 and rEEH3) was measured in the range from 10 to 70° C., the results indicated that the hydrolysis rate of the rEEH1, rEEH2 and rEEH3 was maximum at 50° C., 55° C., and 45° C., respectively (FIG. 7B). Namely, the EHase activity toward the temperature was increased from 10 to 50° C., then obviously decreased above the optimum temperature (FIG. 7B).

EXAMPLE 3 Cloning and Expression of the EHase Genes from Sphingopyxis Alaskensis, Novosphingobium Aromaticivorans, and Rhodobacterium Sp. HTCC2594

After analyzing the ORF sequences from Sphingopyxis alaskensis, Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, and Rhodobacterium sp. HTCC2594 with the method as described above embodiment 2, each of genes having the activity of the EHase were cloned with Forward(F) and Reverse(R) primer set as indicated in Table 4.

TABLE 4 Primer set for cloning of the EHase genes from each of strains SEQ ID PRIMER SEQUENCE NO: SPF1 (F) 5′-CGACCCGGCATATGTCCCCCGCCAAATCAATTT 19 CGC-3′ SPRH1 (R) 5′-CTCCACATGCGGCCGCCTTCTTCTCGCGCAAGG 20 GG-3′ NVF1 (F) 5′-CGACCCGGCATATGAATGTTGCGCCTTTCGTTG 21 TCG-3′ NVRH1 (R) 5′-CTCCACATGCGGCCGCGCACATCAGGGAAAACG 22 CGG-3′ RBF2 (F) 5′-CGACCCGGCATATGAACGACAAGACCTTTATCG 23 AGACGAACGGC-3′ RBRH2 (R) 5′-CTCCACATCTCGAGTTACAAGGCTGAAAAGAAC 24 ACTCGCAAATC-3′ SPRNH1 (R) 5′-CTCCACATGCGGCCGCTCACTTCTTCTCGCGCA 25 AGGG-3 NVRNH1 (R) 5′-CTCCACATGCGGCCGCCTAGCACATCAGGGAAA 26 ACGCG-3′ BRNH2 (R) 5′-CTCCACATCTCGAGTCAAAGCGTGGCGAGCCAG 27 TCGATGA-3′

See Table 4. For confirm the expression of sEEH, rEEH, and rEEH genes without His-tag, the reverse primers of SPRNH1 (SEQ ID NO: 25), NVRNH1 (SEQ ID NO: 26) and RBRNH₂ (SEQ ID NO: 27) were also designed as above Table 4.

The results indicated that the seeh gene (SEQ ID NO: 29) from Sphingopyxis alaskensis, the neeh gene (SEQ ID NO: 31) from Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, the reeh gene (SEQ ID NO: 33) from Rhodobacterium sp. HTCC2594 were isolated, respectively.

After cloning the genes into pET-24a (+) expression vector, the vector was introduced into BL21-CondonPlus(DE3)-RP (Novagen), and then separated by SDS-PAGE. The results indicated that the molecular weight of the purified sEEH, nEEH, and rEEH showed 49 kDa (sEEH, SEQ ID NO: 28), 43 kDa (nEEH, SEQ ID NO: 30), and 36 kDa (rEEH, SEQ ID NO: 39), respectively (FIG. 9). Also, the optimum activities of sEEH, nEEH, and rEEH occurred at neutral pH and mesophilic conditions (30 to 40° C.).

EXAMPLE 4 Determination of Kinetic Parameters and Substrate Selectivity

Kinetic parameters of the rEEH1, rEEH2, rEEH3, sEEH, nEEH, and rEEH were determined by a GC analysis using (R)- or (S)- styrene oxide substrate. 100 ul of purified EHases were mixed with various concentrations of (R)- or (S)- styrene oxide in a 10 ml tube containing 1 ml of potassium phosphate buffer (100 mM, pH 8.0), and shake-incubated at 200 rpm and a temperature of 30° C. The extraction mixtures were extracted with 2 ml of hexane, and enantiomeric excess [ee; ee=100×(S−R)/(S+R)] toward enantiopure styrene oxide was analyzed with a chiraldex gamma-cyclodextrin trifluoroacetyl(G-TA) capillary GC column. See Table 5 and FIG. 8. Wherein, the FIG. 8 was diagramed with GC analysis for the hydrolyzing activities of enantioselective EHases (rEEH1, rEEH2, and rEEH3) toward racemic styrene oxide.

Solid line: SO,

Bold solid line: SO incubated with rEEH1,

Long dashed line: SO incubated with rEEH2,

Dotted line: RSO incubated with rEEH3.

The results indicated that V_(max) ^(R) and K_(m) ^(R) of the purified rEEH1 toward (R)-styrene oxide were 2.3 umol/min and 2.9 mM, respectively, while V_(max) ^(s) and K_(m) ^(s) of the purified rEEH1 toward (S)-styrene oxide were 1.18 umol/min and 2.3 mM, respectively (Table 5 and FIG. 8). These results revealed that (R)-styrene oxide was hydrolyzed faster than (S)-styrene oxide in rEEH1. Namely, the faster hydrolyzing rate toward an enantiomer implied that the rEEH 1 was enantioselective. In contrast, V_(max) ^(s) and K_(m) ^(s) of the purified rEEH3 toward (S)-styrene oxide were 0.43 umol/min and 3.71 mM, respectively, while V_(max) ^(R) and K_(m) ^(R) of the purified rEEH3 toward (R)-styrene oxide were 0.29 umol/min and 2.61 mM, respectively (Table 5 and FIG. 8). These results revealed that (S)-styrene oxide was hydrolyzed faster than (R)-styrene oxide in rEEH3. On the other hand, V_(max) ^(s) and K_(m) ^(s) of the purified rEEH2 toward (S)-styrene oxide were 0.12 umol/min and 6.18 mM, respectively, while V_(max) ^(R) and K_(m) ^(R) of the purified rEEH2 toward (R)-styrene oxide were 0.11 umol/min and 5.49 mM, respectively (Table 5 and FIG. 8). These results revealed that both of (S)-styrene oxide and (R)-styrene oxide were hydrolyzed at an equal rate in rEEH2.

In the catalytic efficiency (k_(cat)/K_(m)) of rEEH1, rEEH2 and rEEH3, the hydrolyzing activity of rEEH1 was appeared to approximately 60 to 550 fold higher than rEEH2 and rEEH3(Table 5). These results indicated that the enantioselective activity of whole cells was resulted from the dominant activity of rEEH1.

TABLE 5 Kinetic parameters of the rEEH1, rEEH2 and rEEH3 toward the hyrolysis of (R)- and (S)-styrene oxide Km Vmax kcat kcat Km Enzyme mM μmole/min s⁻¹ s⁻¹ mM⁻¹ (S)-enantiomer rEEH1 2.3 1.1 24.5  10.6  rEEH2 6.1 0.1 1.7 0.2 rEEH3 3.7 0.4 6.5 1.7 (R)-enantiomer rEEH1 2.9 2.3 49.1  16.3  rEEH2 5.4 0.1 1.6 0.3 rEEH3 2.6 0.2 4.3 1.6

Also, the substrate selectivity of rEEH1, rEEH2 and rEEH3 toward various epoxide substrates depicted in FIG. 1 was same to Table 4. The results indicated that the purified rEEH1 hydrolyzed enantioselectively toward monosubstituted epoxides with bulky ring at C-1 position, whereas hydrolyzed both of (R)- and (S)-monosubstituted epoxides with aliphatic chains at similar rate. In contrast, the purified rEEH3 hydrolyzed enantioselectively aliphatic epoxides at C-1 position and styrene oxide, but the enantioselective differentiation was not found.

TABLE 6 Enantioselective hydrolyzing activity of the rEEH1, rEEH2 and rEEH3 toward various epoxide substrates Hydrolysis rate (×10⁻²) mg/min SO GPE EX EB ECH EF Enzyme (S) (R) (S) (R) (S) (R) (S) (R) (S) (R) (S) (R) rEEH1 9.00 28.0 20.0 11.0 8.00 7.00 15.0 15.0 N.D. N.D. 15.0 4.00 rEEH2 0.06 0.05 0.07 0.06 0.07 0.07 0.08 0.08 0.23 0.23 N.D. N.D. rEEH3 0.14 0.10 0.10 0.10 0.09 0.17 0.11 0.08 0.28 0.26 N.D. N.D. * N.D: not determined

Kinetic parameters were estimated by non-linear regression analysis using a Sigma Plot program, and various substrates as depicted in FIG. 1 were also tested for the enantioselective hydrolyzing activity by rEEH1, rEEH2, rEEH3, sEEH, nEEH, and rEEH. See Table 6. The results indicated that the rEEH hydrolyzed (R)-enantiopure styrene oxide, while nEEH and sEEH were not enantioselective.

TABLE 7 Kinetic parameters of the enzyme purified from each strains toward (R)- and (S)-styrene oxide Parameter value Enzyme and K_(m) V_(max) K_(cat) K_(cat)/K_(m) enantiomer (mM) (umole/min/mg) (S−1) (S−1/mM) (S)-enantiomer Sp^(a) 5.25 ± 0.3  12.1 10.08 1.92 Novo^(b)   4 ± 0.3 18.67 12.96 3.24 RH^(c) 4.1 ± 0.3 11.26 6.7 1.63 (R)- enantiomer Sp^(a)   4 ± 0.3 8.9 7.42 1.86 Novo^(b)   6 ± 0.3 40.0 27.8 4.63 RH^(c) 5.2 ± 0.3 54.08 32 6.16 ^(a), ^(b), and ^(c): Enzyme purified from Sphingopyxis alaskensis, Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, and Rhodobacterium sp. HTCC2654, respectively.

Therefore, the EHases purified from Erythrobacter, Sphingopyxis, Novosphingobium, and Rhodobacterium strains can be applied to bioprocess for production of enantiopure epoxides in the pharmaceutical industry.

While the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and substitutions can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims. 

1. A method of preparing an enantiopure styrene oxide or glycidyl phenyl ether by reacting a protein having the amino acid of SEQ ID NO: 32 with at least one substrate selected from the group consisting of styrene oxide and glycidyl phenyl ether, to enantioselectively hydrolyze the substrate.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the protein is encoded by the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 33. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the protein has an optimum pH 7.0 to 8.0 and an optimum temperature of 30 to 40° C.
 4. An isolated enantioselective epoxide hydrolase protein having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 32. 